Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried was out of the game at Atlanta with a sore back. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

ATLANTA — The Nuggets will tread very lightly with Kenneth Faried as the season winds to its end.

Faried will not play against the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday night due to a sore back. And Nuggets coach Michael Malone isn’t going to take any chances on the health of his high-energy forward in the games ahead.

“Sometimes I feel that I may have to protect him from himself,” Malone said. “I think he wants to be out there, but, you know what? We have 14 games to go, we know what Kenneth is about, we know the high level he’s capable of playing.” Read more…

Almost all of them are A) playing well and B) getting important minutes on their teams in doing so.

“I think it’s probably the best class since 2003 with LeBron and them,” Mudiay said. “I think we got that type of talent. I think the more we keep working — hopefully no one gets too Hollywood or anything like that. Everybody keeps working and we could have a real special class.” Read more…

Nuggets guards Gary Harris, left, and Emmanuel Mudiay cheer with teammates from the bench late in the Nuggets game against Washington last Saturday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

MIAMI — Because you’re still wondering.

And others of you, you’re still hoping.

This is the final word: What you’ve seen of the Nuggets in March, where they’ve started 5-1 and run through many of the opponents in doing it, is exactly what coach Michael Malone envisions as Nuggets basketball.

Final answer.

The numbers this month going into Monday night’s game at Miami are these: 115.8 points per game, 47 percent shooting from the field, 36.5 percent from the 3-point line and nearly 80 percent from the free throw line. But more importantly to Malone is how they’re getting to those numbers. The Nuggets explosive offensive stats start with his no-negotiation fundamental:

MIAMI — The injuries keep on coming for an already beat-up Nuggets team.

This time, the two players in question are both big men, centers Jusuf Nurkic and Joffrey Lauvergne. Nuggets coach Michael Malone called the pair game-time decisions for Monday night’s game at Miami.

“Right now I’m a little worried about our injuries,” said Malone after Nuggets shootaround. “Can Joffrey play tonight with his face? Can Nurkic play with his knee? We could be a depleted team tonight, but that’s been the case all year and I’m sure other guys will step up.” Read more…

From time-to-time when the subject of the end of the season comes up, Nuggets coach Michael Malone grins and slips in a one-liner about finishing strong and then getting ready to face Golden State in the first round of the playoffs.

Yuks all around.

But maybe he should be taken a little more seriously?

The Nuggets have not been eliminated from the playoff race. Far from it, actually, and shhhh… they’re quietly within striking distance of the eighth spot, just five games out. Not only that, but going into Sunday’s games the Nuggets are 10th in the conference at 28-38, so there aren’t a bunch of teams separating them from the seventh and eighth spots. Only Utah. Read more…

Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he’s going to make getting second-year center Nurkic on the court a priority as the season winds down.

That started with a short stint on Friday against Phoenix.

“It was great to get Nurk in last game, even though he only played four and a half minutes,” Malone said. “But he came in, he was ready to play, he’s been working his butt off, he’s had a great attitude. And he went out there and impacted the game in a very positive manner. So, my goal in these last 17 games is to find a way to get Nurkic a lot more time. That’s my challenge.” Read more…

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone lifts 8-year old Gertie Munholland after his team’s victory on Thursday night. Munholland, a Special Olympics athlete, was a guest of the team for its game against Phoenix. (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBA Photos)

Michael Malone’s usual order of business after a game is usually a beeline off the court and back to the locker room to address the team. Sometimes a wave to the opposing coach breaks up the routine.

But on Thursday night, after the Nuggets’ win over Phoenix, Malone’s sprint wasn’t to the locker room. This time it was to give a hug to a very special guest sitting courtside, who had been soaking up every bit of the night with the widest smile of anyone in the Pepsi Center.

The day could not have been any closer to a dream come true for Gertie-Leigh Munholland, a special 8-year old girl with Down syndrome. Thursday started with shootaround. She helped Nuggets head strength coach Steve Hess stretch out the athletes. They broke the final huddle “1, 2, 3, Gertie!” Pictures and so many more smiles were on tap as the players made their way to the locker room afterward. Read more…

Former Denver Nuggets guard Nate Robinson says he wants to play in the NFL.

The three-time NBA slam dunk champion was a standout high school athlete for Rainer Beach High School in Seattle, Wash., in both football and basketball and went on to play both sports at the University of Washington.

Nate Robinson poses for a portrait at Denver Nuggets media day on Sept. 29, 2014 at the Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

Robinson, a cornerback, played in 13 games (six starts) for the Huskies in 2002, making two interceptions and 34 tackles his freshman year. He decided to focus on basketball in his sophomore season.

“If you ask people around here, they all know, ‘Nate Robinson, his best sport is football,'” Robinson said in a documentary on The Lead. “And people tell me all the time, ‘if anybody can go do it, go play football, it’s you.'”

Robinson, an 11-year NBA veteran, played 77 games across two seasons (2013-2015) in Denver, averaging 8.4 points and 2.5 assists in 17.3 minutes per game for the Nuggets.Read more…

It has to be. After injuries and trades, there’s virtually nothing else left.

But Nuggets coach Michael Malone is taking nothing for granted, as his team faces the 17-win Suns on Thursday night at the Pepsi Center. He’s got a list of what the Nuggets need to do — and who they need to stop — in order to win their fourth game of this homestand. Read more…

New York Knicks guard Jose Calderon congratulates Carmelo Anthony after he scored a basket and drew a foul during the second half of the team’s NBA game against the Nuggets on Tuesday.(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Carmelo Anthony professed not to hear the scattered boos that greeted him when he touched the ball at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night. Or, at least he heard them but was convinced they were for the team in general.

So he might have been a bit in denial.

But he is not feeling the hate the same way he did in the first few years following his trade out of Denver to New York.

“I think all of that is gone,” Anthony said. “The fans that was here when I was here, they understand the situation. There’s no love lost from me to them. The real fans that was here, I don’t think there was any love lost from them either with me.” Read more…

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant (24) signs autographs after leaving the court after the Lakers loss to the Denver Nuggets on March 2, 2016 at Pepsi Center. (John Leyba, The Denver Post)

It was early night for Lakers guard Kobe Bryant as his farewell tour reached Denver Wednesday night. His aching shoulder injury got the better of him as he was limited to only 11 minutes of action.

Bryant’s fun didn’t end when he exited the game. He had his own contest with four fans sitting behind the Lakers’ bench, a pair of boys and a pair of young ladies. It ended with the two boys receiving his autographed sneakers once the game ended. It wasn’t just a gift, either.

“No, they earned them,” Bryant said. “They wanted to know what the name of my pet dog was so I gave them a clue. I said ‘it’s in a (Harry) Potter film.’ So every time, they threw out like 15 names. The deal was if they got it, I’d give them my shoes. And they got it.”Read more…

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) lies on the court after getting knocked down during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Madison Square Garden in New York, Tuesday, March 1, 2016. The Blazers won 104-85. (Kathy Willens, The Associated Press)

Carmelo Anthony, meet the rim.

Late in the first quarter Tuesday, the Knicks forward was fouled going up for a layup against the Portland Trail Blazers. After the foul, Anthony grabbed the ball and went up for an emphatic slam.

Unfortunately he met the rim, fell over and slid to the free-throw line. Read more…

The results are in on tests on Danilo Gallinari’s right ankle, and none of it sounds any good.

The Nuggets forward has two torn lateral ligaments in that ankle — the anterior talofibular and calcaneofibular — and has a sprained deltoid ligament as well. The Nuggets are already on record as saying they expected Gallinari to miss an extended period of time.

The team certainly missed him on Monday night in a loss to Memphis.

“He’s a vital part of this team,” teammate Gary Harris said. “He’s a huge part of what we’ve done so far. Everybody hates to see him go down. But it’s up to us (to step up). It’s going to take a full team effort.”

Gallinari, who leads the team in scoring at 19.5 points per game, was injured in the third quarter of the Nuggets’ game at Dallas last Friday. Read more…

The eye test could have told anyone that, but the numbers since the All-Star break for the Nuggets starting shooting guard back up what has been plain to see.

Prior to the All-Star break, Harris let the offense come to him. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t. The net result of it was the second-year player taking just 9.3 shots per game despite owning one of the highest shooting percentages on the team. But after it, after many including himself felt he deserved, but didn’t get, a spot on the U.S. Team in the Rising Stars Challenge, he’s taken matters into his own hands.

In the five games post-All Star going into Monday’s game against Memphis, Harris has upped his attempts to 12.2 per game. He’s shooting 44.3 percent in those tries, as opposed to 46.2 prior to the break. And his 3-point attempts are up by one per game, going from 3.5 prior to the break to 4.8 post-break. Read more…

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates after hitting the game-winning shot in overtime of an NBA basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. Golden State won 121-118. (Sue Ogrocki, The Associated Press)

This Stephen Curry guy is pretty good, no?

The 27-year-old Warriors star tied the NBA single-game record for most 3-pointers Saturday by connecting on 12 from beyond the arc in an overtime win over the Thunder.

Jameer Nelson drives on Phoenix’s Devin Booker and during a game between the teams this season. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

DALLAS — Right now, the point guard hierarchy is as follows: Emmanuel Mudiay, D.J. Augustin, Jameer Nelson. And Mudiay is getting the majority of the minutes.

Two factors have gone into Nuggets coach Michael Malone’s decision to change the depth chart. First, Augustin has come in and quickly played very well since being traded to the Nuggets a week ago. Second, Nelson continues to battle through a sprained left wrist.

And even though he’s been able to suit up, ready to play if needed, he’ll have to wait.

“You know, it’s tough,” Malone said. “D.J. has played well for us. Emmanuel is getting the lion share of the minutes. You cant play three point guards. Jameer and I have talked, and I told him that right now I’m going to play D.J. as the backup.” Read more…

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.